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CodeWalrus Website => Site Discussion => Newsletters => Topic started by: Dream of Omnimaga on January 03, 2016, 05:03:17 AM

Title: The CodeWalrus Programming Newsletter - Summer and Fall 2015 Edition
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on January 03, 2016, 05:03:17 AM
(Note: Due to the way CodeWalrus forum was setup, members who signed up before March 3rd 2015 were subscribed to e-mail announcements by default. If you do not wish to receive them, go to http://codewalr.us/index.php?action=profile;area=notification;u={$member.id} (http://codewalr.us/index.php?action=profile;area=notification;u=%7B$member.id%7D) then uncheck the first option.)

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The CodeWalrus Programming Newsletter - Summer and Fall 2015 Edition
(Note: This newsletter version has been edited from its e-mail version because some programs (most notably CEmu) were missing from the list and the title above said "Spring" instead of "Summer and Fall". Sorry about that.)

Announcement
Hello and welcome to the the third edition of the CWPN, the CodeWalrus Programming Newsletter! Due to lack of time, there was no newsletter at the end of last Summer, and even this new edition is a few days late, so this edition will combine both Summer and Fall 2015 happenings (as well as some early Winter 2015-16 stuff) on CW and major calculator releases.


CodeWalrus Programming Contest II: A Game about Walruses
After the success of our 4x3 contest last Spring, we have now launched a new game programming competition, where the theme is walruses. The deadline is January 19th 2016, 11:59 PM GMT. More information can be found in the official topic: https://codewalr.us/index.php?topic=913.0


Ticalc.org POTY 2015
Each year, http://www.ticalc.org hosts the Program of the Year awards, where the best calculator program of each category, decided via surveys where members vote, is given a special screenshot and more recognition. Voting is over since yesterday, so the results are available at http://www.ticalc.org/community/awards/poty/2015.html . Axagon (TI-83+/84+), First Fantasy (TI-84+CSE/CE BASIC), Portal Returns (TI-84+CSE ASM), Portal Returns (again, this time for the TI-84+CE), Twilight Legion (TI-89) and Fractal Zoomer (TI-Nspire CX) are the winner!


Notable program releases that made CodeWalrus headlines
It's possible that some programs might have fallen under the radar on ticalc.org, but some have made it on CW front page nonetheless. Because of the large amount of releases since July, we are not going to describe everything in details nor link to everything, to avoid making this newsletter being way too long, but you can see the list below, and we will elaborate further on some releases below:

TI-82+/83+/84+
-Line++
-HoustonTracker 2
-Lazer 2
-libc & KCC (KnightOS C Support)

TI-84+CSE
-Bejeweled CSE
-Code Zombie
-Scogger CSE

TI-83PCE/84+CE
-C Compiler (Cemetech)
-Online C Compiler (TI-Planet)
-CE Textlib (BASIC library)
-First Fantasy: Mana Force
-Tetric A
-TI-OS 5.1
-Mandragore
-Androides
-Crystann or the Diamond Dungeon
-Shades
-PHASM (shell)
-Cesium (another shell)
-CEmu

TI-89
-Twilight Legion

TI-Nspire CX
-Pocket SNES (emulator)
-PicoDrive (Sega Genesis/Mega Drive emulator)
-Vecx (Vectrex emulator)
-Tail-Tale
-Falling Time
-Lolicopocalypse
-Zelda Souls
-ScummVM
-Super Methane Brothers
-Another World Bytecode Interpreter
-Pac Attack
-Worship Vector
-TI-Nspire OS 4.0.3.29
-Ndless 4.0 (compatible with OS 3.1, 3.6, 3.9 and 4.0.3)

HP Prime
-Radioactive Wastes
-Rip'Em (3rd-party firmware)

PC
-Crystal Towers 2
-nKaruga PC demo
-Space Limit (PICO-8)


Ndless 4.0 release
The most recent happening in the TI community is the release of Ndless 4.0. Now, people who are stuck with OS 4.0.3 can play ASM and C games again, as well as use the various other Ndless programs available out there. Here is the english thread about it: https://codewalr.us/index.php?topic=975


SNES & Sega Genesis emulation on TI-Nspire CX
It has been possible for a while to play NES, GBC and GBA games on your TI-Nspire CX, but thanks to gameblabla, it is now possible to play Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis games as well, with PocketSNES and PicoDrive. https://codewalr.us/index.php?topic=716.0


ASM on TI-82 Advanced now possible...
-The TI-82 Advanced is a new version of the TI-84 Plus Silver Edition monochrome calculator now available in France. However, it has the same problem as the TI-Nspire series: It lacks native ASM/C support and requires hacks in order to use it. However, thanks to Brandon Wilson, it is now possible to add ASM to your calculator via an hack! Here is a Twitter post about it, although the exploit doesn't appear to be out yet: https://twitter.com/brandonlwilson/status/626312531322253312


...And soon on the HP Prime as well?
-Someone joined Omnimaga then immediately announced a new 3rd-party firmware for the HP Prime, which could give programmers the ability to make ASM and C games for that calculator!


C programming arrives on the TI-84 Plus CE
It is now possible to program in C on the new TI-84 Plus CE. One solution uses ZDS and was posted by MateoConLechuga on Cemetech at https://www.cemetech.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11626 . The other solution, which is still being worked on, is from TI-Planet and it's an online C IDE which allows multiple people to work on a project at once, with a shoutbox available. Topics are available at https://codewalr.us/index.php?topic=742.0 and https://tiplanet.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=17279


First TI-84 Plus CE shells
While Doors CE is still being worked on, some people did not wait and already released the first shells for the TI-84 Plus CE. PHASM, by Epharius, only takes a few hundreds of bytes and is available at https://tiplanet.org/forum/archives_voir.php?id=318384 . The other, Cesium, is more elaborate, with a graphical interface and many features, and is available at https://www.cemetech.net/programs/index.php?mode=file&path=/84pce/asm/shells/Cesium.zip


First Fantasy ported to the TI-84 Plus CE and featured on Ticalc.org
The color remake of Mana Force that was ported to the TI-84 Plus C Silver Edition back in April is now available on the newer TI-83 Premium CE and TI-84 Plus CE calculator models. Although Doors CSE was not available for those calculators at the time, DrDnar released a color homescreen text library that allowed a port that looks similar to its CSE counterpart. The game can be downloaded at https://codewalr.us/index.php?topic=375.0

There are discussions about a sequel, although it is not guaranted yet.


Other projects being worked on
Don't forget to check out http://codewalr.us/index.php?action=forum to find more projects in the works. Besides the featured ones, we got one sub-forum for calculator project showcase and one for non-calculator material.


CodeWalrus Minecraft Server
We now have a Minecraft server, in creative mode on a flat land. You need a CodeWalrus forum account in order to join, so put your Minecraft username in your forum profile, wait about 30 seconds then you're set. The URL is mc.codewalr.us . For people who prefers survival, check out our affiliate at http://www.bosaik.net/


Site updates
Since last Summer, it is now possible to post topics in multiple sub-forums without having to create duplicates. We also got an IRC botnet to make it easier to manage #codewalrus . In addition to that, you can now use tags in topic titles, which, when logged in, can be clicked for a quick search on similar items of the same topic.

Also, since CodeWalrus is not just a calculator website, we started restructuring the board index layout to make other sections of the forum more visible. If you have moved on from calculators but are still interested in programming, retro-gaming, any art topic and related topics, then don't worry, CodeWalrus and its members still have a lot of discussions to offer for you and you can still showcase what you are working on. :)


Stay in touch!
If you have any submission ideas for next newsletters, feel free to PM a CodeWalrus staff or e-mail us at a d m i n @ c o d e w a l r . u s. They will be forwarded to the whole team in our staff sub-forum. Also, besides the forums, we got an IRC channel called #CodeWalrus , which is reachable from EFnet (where other big TI calculator channels are located). You can also use the IRC chatroom directly from the WalrusIRC shoutboxes on the website, depending of your account settings (you need 5 posts to use the embedded shoutbox, but the IRC channel is reachable by anyone).


Credits
-DJ Omnimaga - CWPN founder
-DJ Omnimaga - Contributor
-Special thanks to people who have contributed to CodeWalrus, projects and news, and of course, the staff.

You can view a forum version of this newsletter as well as past ones at the following URL: http://codewalr.us/index.php?board=32.0 or http://codewalr.us/index.php?board=32.0;wap

If you would like to subscribe or unsubscribe to the site newsletter and e-mail annoucements, go to the forums, click Profile, then head to the Notifications section and the option to check or uncheck is "Receive forum newsletters, announcements and important notifications by email.". If you do not have a forum account, you can now setup that option while registering. Don't hesitate to sign up and say hi or showcase your projects. We hope that you feel at home if you do!

CodeWalrus website: http://codewalr.us
Title: Re: The CodeWalrus Programming Newsletter - Summer and Fall 2015 Edition
Post by: Vogtinator on January 03, 2016, 11:11:36 AM
Quotehttp://codewalr.us/index.php?action=profile;area=notification;u={$member.id}
You may want to replace the {$member.id} with 0 :P

Quote-TI-Nspire OS 4.0.3.29 (***DO NOT UPGRADE!***)
You can remove that now :D
Title: Re: The CodeWalrus Programming Newsletter - Summer and Fall 2015 Edition
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on January 03, 2016, 08:10:29 PM
Yeah I should. :P

This is why I kept asking help for the newsletter in the past, but nobody seemed interested, so obviously with such limited time this will result into errors.
Title: Re: The CodeWalrus Programming Newsletter - Summer and Fall 2015 Edition
Post by: alexgt on January 03, 2016, 08:26:48 PM
I can read it in advance if you want but I don't feel up to writing it :P
Title: Re: The CodeWalrus Programming Newsletter - Summer and Fall 2015 Edition
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on January 04, 2016, 06:27:12 AM
That could work. I could PM it to you when it's almost ready. Credits will be given when due :)
Title: Re: The CodeWalrus Programming Newsletter - Summer and Fall 2015 Edition
Post by: alexgt on January 04, 2016, 02:52:09 PM
Ok, I think that will work ;)
Title: Re: The CodeWalrus Programming Newsletter - Summer and Fall 2015 Edition
Post by: novenary on January 04, 2016, 03:40:42 PM
Yeah, even though we don't exactly have a newser group in the staff, having dedicated editors for the newsletter would be a good thing, even if it's just to proofread it once it's done. What do you think about it DJ ?
Title: Re: The CodeWalrus Programming Newsletter - Summer and Fall 2015 Edition
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on January 04, 2016, 05:35:00 PM
That would be good :3=
Title: Re: The CodeWalrus Programming Newsletter - Summer and Fall 2015 Edition
Post by: c4ooo on January 04, 2016, 08:16:02 PM
My aspiration is to get myself into the news, but not by being an editor.
/me runs

A full time editor position seems sort of important to me, not only for the newsletter but also for general front page news. That way ppl wont have to go around poking admins to feature their stuff :P
Title: Re: The CodeWalrus Programming Newsletter - Summer and Fall 2015 Edition
Post by: novenary on January 04, 2016, 08:25:47 PM
Actually the way we have the forum set up is made so that anyone can write news and submit it, which is why editor is not a staff position atm.
Title: Re: The CodeWalrus Programming Newsletter - Summer and Fall 2015 Edition
Post by: c4ooo on January 04, 2016, 08:34:32 PM
Well, i had to go find you too news lazer iirc. (And i had done the mark as news button thing, but maybe i should have given you more time). And in the end you just quoted it <_<
Title: Re: The CodeWalrus Programming Newsletter - Summer and Fall 2015 Edition
Post by: novenary on January 04, 2016, 08:35:50 PM
The problem is that the portal mod uses the thread creation date to sort the articles, instead of the order in which articles were added. :/
Title: Re: The CodeWalrus Programming Newsletter - Summer and Fall 2015 Edition
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on January 05, 2016, 07:03:07 AM
Quote from: c4ooo on January 04, 2016, 08:16:02 PM
My aspiration is to get myself into the news, but not by being an editor.
/me runs

A full time editor position seems sort of important to me, not only for the newsletter but also for general front page news. That way ppl wont have to go around poking admins to feature their stuff :P
What we need is to modify the thing above the site that says members awaiting approval so that it also shows if there are articles awaiting approval. In the pending queue, articles are sorted by name IIRC and includes both unnaproved and approved articles, making it easy to miss anything.

Quote from: Streetwalrus on January 04, 2016, 08:35:50 PM
The problem is that the portal mod uses the thread creation date to sort the articles, instead of the order in which articles were added. :/
Yeah, that's the closest we could get to Cemetech news system. Not that we wanted to copy them, but what I used on Omni back then was annoying and made it easy for topics to get lost, as the news system only allowed showing topics from 1 single board, and I always prefered Cemetech system overall. Simpleportal improved in the way that it allows topics from any board to be flagged as articles. But on Cemetech, you can even flag individual posts as articles (you can even make multiple news from one single topic).
Title: Re: The CodeWalrus Programming Newsletter - Summer and Fall 2015 Edition
Post by: novenary on January 05, 2016, 09:43:14 AM
Quote from: DJ Omnimaga on January 05, 2016, 07:03:07 AM
What we need is to modify the thing above the site that says members awaiting approval so that it also shows if there are articles awaiting approval. In the pending queue, articles are sorted by name IIRC and includes both unnaproved and approved articles, making it easy to miss anything.
Yeah indeed. You can change the sorting criteria but you still need to go to that page and check it out.
Title: Re: The CodeWalrus Programming Newsletter - Summer and Fall 2015 Edition
Post by: Dream of Omnimaga on April 16, 2016, 02:10:52 PM
The CWPN has officially been discontinued. There will be an important announcement about the future of CodeWalrus on April 29th.